Alice, I feel like I would be doing you a disservice by encouraging you to start playing cardboard crack. BUT, i am totally an enabler. Before throwing any sort of money at the game I would recommend you try the free trial on MTGO. You can then play for free with like 9 "Starter level" decks against other people who are using the same shitty decks, so it's "fair".

If you find that you do enjoy the game enough to throw some small amount of money at it they release 'Event Decks' every new set online and on paper, which are actually pretty good._________________(\__/)
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..so i started playing. my friend's brother is trying to teach me and has been playing about a year...he got a bunch of cards from some guy selling his old deck and gave me a bunch in a white box (however many that is). i haven't gotten to go through them all yet, but i was wondering if cix could like come over and help me build decks. haha.

no seriously can someone explain to me the difference between standard & everything else, and what's tournament legal? i have no idea if i can use these cards in a tournament setting.

For just generic playing with friends, generally you build a deck of at least 45-60 cards, and go for it. If you want to meet tournament formats, depends on the tournament. Google it, you should be able to figure out what sets (indicated by the white/silver/gold/red symbol on the card-type line, between the art and the text box) are currently legal._________________(( Tiogshi Laj :: Average ASCII Artisan And Ambitiously Anachronistic Assonanteur ))
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Tournament legal is a deck that is comprised of at least 60 cards, you can have as many as you want but you want 60 to assure that you draw your best cards the most often. You can only have four copies of any one card in your deck that inst basic land, you may have as many BASIC lands as you want. You may also have a sideboard that is EXACTLY 15 cards, they are just for tournament play and not necessary.

Standard is a tournament type, it is the easiest type to learn and play and you may only use cards that have been printed in the last 2 blocks and the last core set.
Standard = you can only use cards from Innastrad and Return to Ravnica blocks(Innastrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, and Return to Ravnia), as well as the last core set, M13.
Here is a list of all the different tournament types

I would recommend playing very casually with friends that would preferably have a deck that is on the same power level as your own until you have a good grasp on the game. Ive seen a lot of people rage quit magic forever because they went to a tournament too soon and got rolled something fierce.

If you get any more questions, or I didnt answer the ones already asked hit me up here or in a PM. I like talking nerdy. =D_________________(\__/)
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I have been playing on Cockatrice lately, its a free way to play Magic online. The game doesn't know any rules, so you have to do everything yourself, but its a good way to learn how to play._________________(\__/)
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